Merit vs reserved seats

Spare a thought for young people living in the tribal regions as well as those in the settled areas of K-P

Spare a thought for young people living in the tribal regions as well as those in the settled areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. For the last decade or so, the government has promised to review the allocation of reserved seats in public-sector medical and dental colleges yet it has not done so despite an apex court ruling. The 2007 decree was made in response to public complaints that the allocation of reserved seats for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the hinterland areas of K-P had been depriving them of a chance to pursue a career in medicine. They claimed that the move to reserve seats for Fata students had more or less backfired because tribal students who secured admission to medical colleges on a reserved quota were just not willing to be posted in the Fata region, defeating the purpose of the earlier 2002 court ruling abolishing reserved seats in medical colleges except for disabled people and students of Fata and other backward areas.

There are other complications as well. Only 10 per cent of the seats are reserved for those studying in Fata-based educational institutions from grade-I to intermediate level. The bulk of the admissions go to those who have homes in Fata but choose to complete their education outside the region. This has led to unnecessary and costly litigation among students and has created bad blood.

Underpriviledged students often get the poor end of the stick. They lose the right to compete with youth educated in settled areas even though they probably deserve a quota. Of 1,200 seats in medical and dental colleges, 400-odd go to Fata and Frontier regions, backward areas and Gilgit-Baltistan. Only 773 seats are given out on the basis of merit. As the court itself has observed, seats in medical colleges are prestigiously won on merit and not on the basis of any quota. That is definitely the way forward.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2017.

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